Pride Fighting Championships was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. Pride held the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003. For ten years PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world.
Cradle 2 the Grave is a 2003 American action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak and starring Jet Li and DMX. The film was released in the United States on February 28, 2003.
Gotti: The Rise and Fall of a Real Life Mafia Don is a 1996 HBO original crime film made for television directed by Robert Harmon. The film stars Armand Assante in the title role as infamous Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, along with William Forsythe, and Anthony Quinn. Assante won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his performance. Assante also received a Golden Globe nomination the same year.
The Mambo Kings is a 1992 musical drama film based on the 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos. The film was directed and produced by Arne Glimcher, and stars Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas, Cathy Moriarty and Maruschka Detmers. Set in the early 1950s, the story follows Cesar (Assante) and Nestor Castillo (Banderas), brothers and aspiring musicians who find success and stardom after fleeing from Havana, Cuba to New York City to escape danger. The film marks Glimcher's directing debut, and features Banderas in his first English-language role.
Shoot wrestling is a combat sport that originated in Japan's professional wrestling circuit of the 1970s. Professional wrestlers of that era attempted to use more realistic or even "full contact" moves in their matches to increase their excitement. The name "shoot wrestling" comes from the professional wrestling term "shoot", which refers to any unscripted occurrence within a scripted wrestling event. Prior to the emergence of the current sport of shoot wrestling, the term was commonly used in the professional wrestling business, particularly in the United Kingdom, as a synonym for the sport of catch wrestling. Shoot wrestling can be used to describe a range of hybrid fighting systems such as shootfighting, shoot boxing and the styles of mixed martial arts done in the Shooto, Pancrase and RINGS promotions.
Prophecy is a 1979 American science fiction monster horror-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by David Seltzer. It stars Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire and Armand Assante. Set in the Androscoggin or Ossipee River, the film follows an environmental agent and his wife filing a report on a paper mill in the river, not knowing that the paper mill's waste made a local bear mutate, causing the bear to run amok in the wilderness.
Richard Norton is an Australian martial artist, Australasian Martial Arts Hall of Fame inductee, action film star, stuntman, stunt/fight coordinator or fight choreographer, and martial arts trainer. After high school, Norton worked as a bodyguard in the entertainment business before pursuing an acting career. He has attained a 10th Degree in Zen Do Kai, Australia. His first screen appearance was in the 1980 Chuck Norris film The Octagon, and he has worked on over 80 feature films and television programs.
UFC 44: Undisputed was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on September 26, 2003, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was broadcast live on pay-per-view in the United States, and later released on DVD.
James Jene Fae Lew is an American martial arts actor. He has made 80 on-screen film and television appearances and 46 more as a stunt coordinator or stunt double. He has done choreography for movies like Get Smart, Killers and the cult classic Big Trouble In Little China, as well as television shows such as National Geographic's Fight Science, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, and Entourage. He does Shaolin Kung-Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Jeet Kune Do, Hapkido, and Boxing. He also trained Brad Pitt with sword fighting for the movie Troy.
Hector Ramirez is a retired Mexican American mixed martial artist who has fought inside the UFC.
No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers is a 1990 American action film directed by Lucas Lowe, and starring Loren Avedon and Keith Vitali. While financed by Seasonal Entertainment, the film does not continue the story of the original film No Retreat, No Surrender or the sequel, both directed by Corey Yuen. It is the third film in the No Retreat, No Surrender franchise.
Dream was a Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization promoted by former PRIDE FC executives and K-1 promoter Fighting and Entertainment Group. Dream replaced FEG's previous-run mixed martial arts fight series, Hero's. The series retained many of the stylistic flourishes and personnel from Pride FC broadcasts, including fight introducer Lenne Hardt. In America, the promotion was aired on HDNet. They promoted over 20 shows highlighting some of the best Japanese and international MMA talent, establishing or enhancing the careers of top ranked fighters such as Shinya Aoki, Gesias Cavalcante, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Ronaldo Jacaré, Eddie Alvarez, Jason Miller, Kazushi Sakuraba, Gegard Mousasi and Alistair Overeem.
Kenny Vance is an American singer, songwriter, and music producer who was a founding member of Jay and the Americans. His career spans from the 1950s to today, with projects ranging from starting doo-wop groups to music supervising to creating solo albums.
Héctor Echavarría is an Argentine actor, producer, filmmaker, martial arts master, activist, businessman and screenwriter.
Never Surrender is a 2009 MMA film about an MMA champion who finds himself fighting in illegal underground cage fights. The film's cast features a number of real MMA fighters. It was filmed in Los Angeles, California and was produced by Destiny Entertainment Productions. It is distributed in the United States by Lions Gate Entertainment.
Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz was a mixed martial arts event held by Strikeforce on April 11, 2009 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. It was the first event promoted by Strikeforce after their acquisition of assets from the defunct EliteXC promotion through its parent company ProElite. It aired on the Showtime cable network and online through Strikeforce All Access. Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo and Pat Miletich were commentating during the broadcast and Jimmy Lennon Jr. was the ring announcer. The official attendance was announced to be 14,409. The event drew an estimated 364,000 viewers on Showtime.
Paper Chasers is a 2003 American independent documentary film produced by Holly Becker and Yvette Plummer, and directed by Maxie Collier.
Chavez Cage of Glory or Chavez: Cage of Glory is a 2013 American action martial arts film written, directed by and starring Héctor Echavarría, and co-starring Danny Trejo, James Russo and Steven Bauer.
Jiu Jitsu is a 2020 American science fiction martial arts film directed and co-written by Dimitri Logothetis and starring Alain Moussi, Frank Grillo, JuJu Chan, Tony Jaa and Nicolas Cage. The film is based on the 2017 comic book of the same name by Logothetis and Jim McGrath. The film was a box office bomb, grossing less than $100k against a budget of over $25m, and was critically panned.
